Here is the second to last Kmart that was open in the State of Louisiana.
Recently uncovered photos from 2017
The next set of photos were taken in August of 2018, shortly before the store closing was announced. Unfortunately, I was unable to visit the store during the store closing sale. This location was originally a GEX membership department store.
I also created a short video here with sounds of the store. The air conditioning system was very loud especially in the back of the store. The toilet paper selection next to the air conditioning vent in the video would be a blessing in today's environment.
Our blog post starts at the back corner of the store. The battery selection was minimal.
The electronics department looks full from this angle, but most of the aisles had been taken down or loaded up with closeout merchandise.
A look through the back aisle of the store.
As you can see here, there were lots of holes where products were sold out in the electronics department.
Kmart went all in on those Epson ink cartridges.
Here is the huge gap that was not too long ago filled with electronics. The closeout items had taken up some shelf space, but not a lot.
I found the last of the music CD's they had in stock. In 2017, CD's were eliminated from Kmart stores.
Here were the closeout items for sale in the electronics department.
Now lets take a look around the rest of the store.
These newer aisle markers were added to the grocery section of the store.
The toy department with the old school air vent.
Appliances, more of these to follow in the article.
The grocery aisles were very well stocked.
A rare working price scanner.
An employee notification button that had seen better days. It was kind of a strange place to have the button. I guess it was there to have employees talk to customers if there was a pricing issue.
Normally in the Summer time of year, the Garden Shop spilled over into the seasonal area.
Here is the separate covered Garden Shop. Even though this was an old Kmart, this area looked very clean and freshly painted.
Ah, the Blue Light.
Back inside, we get this high up view of the middle air vent across the store.
The shopping computer was in a good spot right in front of the appliances on the back aisle.
The sporting goods were well stocked.
More appliances and furniture.
Shoes across from another furniture display.
More shoes and clothing.
The sporting goods aisle directly next to the Men's clothing.
A lot of the busier Kmart stores had this display.
Women's clothing
Clothes with the checkouts in the distance.
The font of the restroom sign is nearly identical to the lettering that Walmart uses. These restrooms were tiny by the way.
As of April 2020, only 10 Kmart pharmacies remain.
A view of the front of the store August 2018.
Fast forward to March 2019, two months after the store closed.
The road sign had not been painted over yet.
I remember us discussing this Kmart a few years ago. It's a very odd store. While those are classic Kmart style HVAC vents, the way they are located in a central strip is not typical for a Kmart. The front facade of the store almost looks like the typical Kmart design from the late 1960s/early 1970s, but it's not quite the same. I would have to guess this store was not originally a Kmart, but perhaps it was some kind of similar discount store. I'm sure if we go back through old posts, we might discover what it really was.
ReplyDeleteThis Kmart was actually quite well stocked for late 2018. Kmart and Sears stores had started to have pretty serious inventory problems by that point. The store is also pretty well organized. Of course, there are some classic Kmart problems like them having to put windshield washer fluid in the mostly empty car battery display.
This store had a pretty good stock of DVDs for the time as well. The CD selection was pretty thin as expected. That Spooky Sounds CD might have served as a good soundtrack to the video you made of this store, lol. Some years ago, it seems that Kmart stopped stocking name-brand inkjet printer cartridges and they only sold 3rd party ones. I suppose this allowed them to sell ink for less than most of the other stores which only sold genuine stuff.
I suppose Kmart had sold out of blank audio and VHS cassettes by 2018. That's not a big surprise. They did have a pretty good selection of blank CDs and DVDs though. The Verbatim brand that Kmart had is the brand most stores sell these days like Walmart, Sam's, Walgreens, Office Depot, and computer stores. I think CVS sells Maxell blank discs, Big Lots sells Philips discs (though these are made by the same company, CMC Magnetics, who makes the Verbatim discs), Dollar General sells HP discs (also made by CMC), and Target sells Memorex discs, but I think that might be old stock because I'm not sure if the Memorex brand is still being used. Staples sells their own brand discs in their stores, but these are probably made by CMC Magnetics as well.
There are a couple of odd sights in this store. That mini shopping basket in the electronics department (in the second picture) is quite odd. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that before. Is that something they had for kids or something? Also, that Kmart movie poster is quite odd. I'm sure someone would like to put that on their wall at home.
It's good to see that the online shopping computer and price scanners were working at this store. Those are things which were usually quite iffy at Sears stores. I would often have to walk all the way across Sears to find a working price scanner. In the last few months of the Willowbrook Mall Sears before the liquidation, I think only the shoe department and the upstairs kids department scanners were working with any level of reliability. The men's department one was mostly screwed up.
The huge inventory of toilet paper is certainly a sign that these pictures are not from 2020, lol. Kmart probably didn't realize they were sitting on something that would be viewed like paper gold.
Anyway, thanks for the photos. Now that Kmart is all but extinct in this area, it's almost easy to forget that they do still exist. Well, the exist mostly in theory at least. It's just too bad these stores don't exist around here anymore, but oh well. It's not like we didn't see this coming. Kmart has been in decline for almost 30 years now and Lampert did nothing to stop it.
It was a GEX membership department store, I updated the article. I kept thinking that I was missing something from my article, thanks for reminding me.
DeleteSome of the products that Kmart had put on shelves to fill up empty space such as water, TP, and paper towels are in high demand now. I wonder how Kmart stores are looking now that these items are more than likely sold out now. The McAllen Kmart had water and paper towels about 3 weeks ago when I went there. I have read that Kmart stores are still open as they are considered an essential store. Some stores have their clothing and other departments closed off per area laws.
I didn't notice the mini basket, I am not sure what it was for. That Kmart movie poster was awesome, sadly it is probably sitting in a trash pile somewhere now. It is a lot cooler than the Sears Movie Night display signage.
The McAllen Kmart had one working price scanner that I noticed in January. It was unhooked in March when the store closing sale was going on. The Sears price scanner at Deerbrook was disconnected as well back in March. I wonder if the liquidators ordered the scanners to be turned off.
We are practically in the center of a huge void of Kmart stores now. Most of the Southeast except for Florida got wiped out in 2019, and so did the rest of the Texas stores. 2020 took the last Texas and the remaining New Mexico and Arizona stores. The rest to the North of Texas were taken away in the past year and a half. The dream of seeing Kmart stores inside of Sears locations was a one-time event. Even the recently remodeled Kmart locations are going away. I wonder how many continental USA stores are still busy? We do know the US Territory stores are doing well.
The list of remaining Kmart and Sears stores keeps shrinking so I am not even sure where the remaining stores are aside from the ones in the Territories. I'd imagine they are mostly in small towns where there is limited retail competition.
DeleteWe know the type of inventory problems Kmarts have. I really can't imagine how they are restocking the shelves at times like this. Their stores might be open, but I doubt they have the items people are looking for most desperately. One thing I've noticed in recent Kmart photos is that they have no shortage of toilet seats. If people need those to go with their TP, perhaps Kmart is the place to go!
GEX, yes, that's right. I remember it was something which I was not familiar with. Thanks for the info.
Here is the map of remaining Kmart and Sears stores in the US and US territory islands. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1p1KF8SWbdXxLBnqFrGe21e_VlcdCVdQU&ll=41.844579109537065%2C-139.97478575000002&z=
DeleteThe list of stores can be found at this link. https://www.thelayoff.com/t/13rGYUmH
You are right, the essentials at any Kmart or Sears store is long gone.
I remember about 3 years ago when Sears stores set up a wall with tons of bleach and cleaning supplies. They were once again ahead of their time, accidentally.
Toilet seats may be needed for houses during the stay at home orders many are under.
My dad worked at this location when it was GEX in the early 70's. There was a trampoline park in the parking lot. Sometimes when we were picking dad up at the store I'd get to jump on the trampolines. AS I remember it, there was not a lot of protection under and around those trampolines. Imagine that in the 2020's! There was also a Burger King in the parking lot at the time. Not surprised to see it became Kmart in its later years.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences with us. The trampoline parks have so much protection these days, kids wouldn't know what to do at a parking lot trampoline park. Do you remember how the prices were at the GEX store? I would guess they are similar to what you would find at Sam's or Costco.
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